The First White Girl in Lyon County, Iowa by Ella West Snyder Transcribed by Betty Winter and submitted to the USGenWeb Project Archives on June 19, 1997. ====================================================================== A history of Lyon County, Iowa was being published in the Lyon County Reporter, and as we had heard, Mrs. Ella Snyder of Hudson, South Dakota was the first white girl to come to Lyon County we asked her about it, and secured from her the narrative which follows, a most interesting bit of history of this portion of Northwest Iowa. Many of us knew Sam Bellesfield whom she tells about as an early stage driver, for Sam homesteaded over along the Rock River northeast of here halfway between Hudson and Rock Valley, and it was at the Bellesfield Ford, where we always forded in the horse and buggy days when we drove to Rock Valley by team. Sam was a brother of Mrs. David Thorpe, and in his later years put in all of his time moving houses, barns etc., and he moved a number of them here in Hudson. Mrs. Snyder makes her home here with her daughter, Mrs. Edith Erickson and family, and is a very fine lady who does not look or act her age by 25 years, and it is always a pleasure to visit with her. In reply to an inquiry she wrote out the following history of the first white girl in Lyon County. My name is Ella West, born in Dennison Iowa, March 11 1859. My father was Jacob West, a member of the 40th Iowa Infantry. He enlisted at Grinell, Iowa at the beginning of the Civil War. He was only in the service for nine months as he came home to die October 16, 1862. Later my mother Margaret Manners West was married at Newton, Iowa to Justus Nathaniel Martin in 1865. During the winter of 68-69 we were located at Dunlap, Iowa where our men-folks were making ties for the new railroad which was pushing west as far as Onawa, Iowa. From Dunlap we started for the homestead country, stopping at Ida Grove and joining a family of relatives, the Smith Gates Martin family -- dad's parents. The two families wended their way over the trackless prairie to Lyon County, arriving there August 1, 1869. After the crossing of the Little Sioux River near where Peterson, Iowa now stands, we had no track to follow and the only water we had was what we carried with us until we reached the headwaters of the Floyd River above Sheldon. Arriving at the site where Doon is now located, we found H. D. Rice on his homestead which he called the "Bonnie Doon". With him was his wife. There also was a man by the name of Mr. Knight. From there we went on north, crossing the Rock River where Rock Rapids, Iowa now stands, going 42 miles north to our homestead where we camped in our wagons while the men made our first meager homes from logs cut along the Rock River. The only other homes we saw after crossing the Little Sioux was the Rice's. We endured the hardships of the frontier such as blizzard, hail, drought and grasshoppers and most of all loneliness. Our next neighbor was Ralph Hawes at Luveme, Minnesota, I I miles. He ran a trading post for dealing with the Indians. To the northwest about 35 miles was the tiny village of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where we took our wheat to mill, and to the northeast was Worthington, Minnesota, where we sold our first crop of wheat. At the age of ten years I rode my horse and drove our cattle behind our covered wagons from Ida Grove and for a time after arriving, I spent most of my time on my horse exploring the territory. We were never bothered by Indians. The following year people started coming in and we had a school just north of our home in Riverside District. The little school house has now been moved and stands just across the road from our homestead. We had a very pleasant time later -- one of our most cordial hosts being Tommy Converse and his wife, whose doors were always open to people for a good time. I rode my horse all over the country and rode in the first fair held in the county at Doon, and also the first fair held in Rock Rapids. Mr. Bellesfield called me "the little girl who rode horse-back". Henry Moon and Dudley Whitehead were homesteaders I remember near Rock Rapids and later the Hanlens, Sweezys and the Townsleys came. W. J. Stears and wife drove through, coming from Vermont to homestead at Valley Springs. They stopped at our house frequently in the early days. The stage coach from LeMars, Iowa to Luverne, Minnesota went past our door, and Sam Bellefield, the driver of the stage, was a friend who often stopped. A little later a Mr. Howell built a home south of us and also a little schoolhouse, where he occasionally held preaching services. We left the county in the fall of 1875 and in the fall of 1876 I was married to N. W. Snyder of Woodbury County, Iowa, where I spent my married life, 41 years of which was spent in Sioux City, Iowa. For the last six years I have lived with my daughter, Mrs. Elmer Erickson, in Hudson, South Dakota. My five children were born and raised in Woodbury County. They are C. M. Snyder of Sioux Falls, J. W. Snyder of Rapid City South Dakota, Mrs. C. F. Conlan of Sioux City, G. W. Snyder of Omaha, Nebraska and Mrs. Elmer Erickson. ====================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. 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